What to do with garlic scapes

As I was planting garlic today, I started thinking about scapes and how I knew of one farm who grew 10 000 head of garlic and simply tossed all the scapes aside from those kept for personal use. I thought I'd relay the few ideas that we've tried for processing scapes for market.

Selling them as is, in twist tied bunches: Kinda obscure, and hard for us to sell, even in Toronto markets. Might do better in your area though.

Pesto. There are many recipes out there, and pesto is pretty popular in general.

Pickles. My favourite type of pickle by far.

Powder. Dehydrated, then ground up and bottled. Easiest, and a good seller for us.


It may seem obvious to some but samples might make the difference for the pesto and pickles. We put our pesto samples on corn chips and it really helps sales.

Any other ideas that have worked/not worked for you?

Mother Earth News has a recipe, and the pic looks super yummy: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2005-10-01/Garlic-Scapes.aspx

I take garlic oil capsules at the least hint of a cold coming on. Maybe you can extract the oils from the scapes.

Also, look into the niche markets for gormet restaurants.

It's a bit OT, but I'm curious....
It's very rare to see hardneck garlic in NZ and I've never seen locally grown scapes, only Chinese. The scapes would have lots of potential in the flash restaurants here, but the hardneck garlic has to be the real crop of course.
So why grow hardneck over soft? I've grown hardneck before and it certainly doesn't store as well. Is it a climate thing?

Yeah, hardneck is more cold-hardy. Its the only kind you'll find grown locally here in Kamloops, BC

Wow never would have thought of garlic scape powder. I'm interested in what it tastes like and how you might use it. At the farm I wwoofed at this year Six Circles Farm we make 4 flavors of refrigerate after opening pesto, dubbed Rosie's Scape-a-moli. We also do many pickles, and garlic/basil powder. I highly recommend trying the pesto, its a killer recipe and easy to order online. *cold pressed sunflower oil*